Early insights from the ULTPEN project on ‘forvaring’, the ultimate penalty in Norway

• In Event: Prison Working Group: Factors impacting the quality of life in prison

Abstract

The ULTPEN project is the first national study on the implementation and impact of the Norway’s ULTimate PENalty – indefinite/indeterminate preventive detention (or forvaring in Norwegian). The project aims to answer three key questions: (1) What is the ultimate penalty in Norwegian law? (2) Who is sentenced to serve the ultimate penalty in Norway? And (3) What is it like to serve the ultimate penalty in Norway? This presentation will provide early insights from this ongoing project, including providing some historical and legal background for preventive detention in Norway and the role of forensic psychiatry in shaping its development. The presentation will also focus on the contemporary implementation of Norway’s indefinite preventive detention system, including how the prison population serving this sentence has grown in recent times. The presentation will draw on analysis of legal and policy documents, a comprehensive national database of all prisoners serving preventive detention, and qualitative interviews carried out with prisoners who are currently serving indefinite preventive detention sentences in prisons across Norway.

Author

• John Todd-Kvam, Norwegian University of Science and Technology